Sunday, 21 August 2016

New bands revitalizing classic sounds and styles of a particular era of extreme music is nothing new but rarely does a band come along and have their influences sorted out with such an acute precision of a long gone and obscure style that chances are you may not even know any of the bands listed in the "For Fans Of" section (guilty of this myself).

Coming from a rich pedigree of old and new bands (Where's The Pope?, Ripped Off, The Submissivies, Pissed On, Sick People), Unbound are manic time travelers adventuring back into the long forgotten times of 90's punk-metal. Ripping into it from the get go they traverse back to a realm of heavy music in an era that is seldom traveled. From the start they dive down into a time-frozen zone of death metal/thrash and return with specimens like "Morbid Freaks" before they go back again into an alt-metal dimension on "Births Eulogy" before finally their obsessive endeavors catch up to them causing a time rift with worlds colliding together in a spiraling frenzy of heavily effected madness which is documented in "Epitaphic Confines" and "Only Dead". Sparing nothing from their methodical styles and grooves the same can be said for the tight and very un-demo like production. Slick and dense guitar and bass tones combating against rugged and plummeting drums whilst they all carry the vocalist around howling in the language of insanity into a flanged-out void.

Unbound has done a top notch job exhuming this peculiar style of 90's Australian punk-metal out from the ground. While at first this may sound like its an acquired taste it only seems that way because Unbound proudly wear their influences on their sleeves when no one else wanted them.

Sunday, 7 August 2016

Ummmmmm...so I'm sure many of you heard earlier this year about a new Brainbombs LP...and it's finally here! I'm kinda flipping out over it, because they somehow are still consistently churning out some of the most haunting, filthy, and memorable tracks of any noise rock band ever, despite having been a band for a little over 30 years at this point. Granted, it's generally one riff per song, but goddamn are they great. However, this LP sees Sweden's Meanest taking a direction they haven't played with this much since their Genius And Brutality...Taste And Power LP; that's right, they're pulling out the psych.

Those familiar with Brainbombs' output shouldn't be too surprised with what they're doing on Souvenirs. They've always had heavy psych leanings, but what sets the material on this LP apart from the rest of their work is that a lot of the tracks are driven more by creating frightening moods and atmospheres rather than every riff being big and bad. That's not to say this LP doesn't have big, bad riffs, because it really does. But the feelings of emotional detachment and emptiness are more at the forefront of it all; and it feels unnerving in a way most of their output doesn't (aside from the Genius And Brutality...Taste And Power LP). It really is incredible that Brainbombs have found ways to keep their output from getting stale, while still maintaining their overall aesthetic. Plus, at least now I have this killer to listen to while I cry over not being able to see them in LA.

Blah, blah it's Brainbombs doing what they do best. You know what you're getting into.